Three separate partnership agreements aimed at improving living conditions in the poor, underdeveloped Northeast and Amazon regions of Brazil were announced in Lyon today by Mr. Rubens Ricupero, Secretary-General of UNCTAD. Mr. Ricupero was Brazil´s Minister for the Environment and Amazon Affairs from 1993-94 before he took up his post at UNCTAD.
Linking the UNCTAD secretariat with a regional development bank, Banco do Nordeste, a private investment bank, Banco Axial S.A., and a non-governmental organization, the Program on Poverty and Environment in Amazonia (POEMA), the three latest agreements to emerge from the Partnership for Development summit demonstrate the potential inherent in these new forms of alliance between the United Nations on the one hand and civil society and the private sector, on the other.
- Banco do Nordeste, whose area of operations embraces 45 million people, will work with UNCTAD on the formulation of an integrated, self-sustaining programme for the economic and social development of the region. Key actions include: entrepreneurship and small and medium-sized enterprise development in agro-industry and tourism; the promotion of investment and international business partnerships; the training of exporters; and the promotion of microfinance activities;
- Banco Axial, a Sao Paulo-based bank focusing in particular on environmental concerns, has agreed to work with UNCTAD on the promotion and execution of biodiversity-related business and on fund raising for the sustainable use of biological, in particular, biochemical resources in the countries sharing the Amazon region;
- Poema, which works to raise the living standards of rural communities in the Amazon, including through environmentally sound job creation schemes, has joined hands with UNCTAD to put into effect the "Bolsa Amazonia." This new vehicle for promotion and intermediation in bio-business opportunities for natural products is composed of 15 public and private institutions; it was launched in Belem, Brazil, last month.
The partner within the UNCTAD secretariat for Banco Axial and Poema is the organization´s Biotrade Initiative. Banco do Nordeste´s partner is the EMPRETEC Programme, which operates in 12 countries.
The focus of the agreement between UNCTAD and Banco do Nordeste will be on emerging economic poles of the huge region, long among the most backward in Brazil. Banco do Nordeste will seek to raise the necessary funds for the wide-ranging programme´s first three years activities.
At a signing ceremony in Lyon today, Mr. Pierre Landolt, chairman of the board of Banco Axial, said that UNCTAD represented a bridge to extend the new bank´s reach. It was "a perfect alliance." Axial, the only investment bank in Latin America committed to environment-related activities, would work with UNCTAD on providing capital to usually neglected communities.
Speaking with satisfaction, Mr. Ricupero said that, in its implications for the future, this UN/private sector pact -- a partnership letter of intent -- was "one of the most important" he had concluded. Acknowledging his concern that the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro could have remained a "dead letter," he said that the UNCTAD Biotrade Initiative reconciled the conservation of natural resources with the task of development.
A closed-end fund managed by Banco Axial, "Terra Capital", was established in Washington, D.C., on 27 October, with the participation of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) -- an arm of the World Bank Group -- the Inter-American Development Bank, the Swiss Government´s Federal Office for Foreign Economic Affairs and a pool of private investors, and with an initial subscribed capital of US$ 15 million.
Terra Capital´s investments will be made throughout Latin America, with the largest share going to Brazil. Under a separate trust agreement, Terra Capital will receive a US$ 5 million grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), which is managed by the IFC.
